Once upon a time, the economy boiled down to two things: goods and services. Sure, stock trading has existed for hundreds of years, but the synthetic power of these abstract markets didn’t start gaining momentum until the end of the 19th century. The majority of human civilization functioned on an ever occurring exchange of products and services for currency, with the last century or so proving to be an unprecedented economic situation.

This unprecedented economic situation, in which vast sums of capital are placed in a virtual trading arena reflecting the supply and demand of goods and services, is running on an outdated operating system. This is the theory of entrepreneur, writer, and presidential candidate Scott Smith, whose book titled Down-Home Economics lays the basis for his argument for an overhaul of economic policies and regulations to address the changes occurring over the last 100 years.

In Smith’s words, the challenges facing today’s working families stem from the fact that current economic policies don’t account for both the exponential efficiency of manufacturing and the overreaching power of Wall Street:

“Many of our nation’s challenges today stem from the fact that while technology has increased the efficiency of our material economy, there remain artificial barriers in the monetary system. These barriers produce scarcity instead of facilitating the abundance that our material economy could deliver. While the production engine in our material economy has grown stronger, able to deliver more for less, our monetary economy is on a rollercoaster, periodically crashing and costing us jobs, bankrupting businesses, and destroying our wealth.”

Simply put, the wild ride of Wall Street was once reflective of an equally unpredictable manufacturing sector, but these days the latter is a runaway powerhouse. The ups and downs of stocks are ultimately the result of billionaires playing a game of thrones to make more billions, not the reaction to supply and demand.

The once intimidating threat of reduced consumer buying power has been guarded against by the virtual profits of Wall Street. Without having to worry about whether or not men and women can afford goods and services, the financial elite has done nothing to prevent a wilting economy. While many blame the billionaires themselves, their decisions are far from out of the ordinary when considering the historic nature of human greed. Anyone at the top would probably be doing what they do: make money on top of money.

According to Smith, part of the solution lies in matching – or “updating” – public sector revenue collection with the current nature of private sector success. In Down-Home Economics, Smith outlines a plan to eliminate income taxes across the board in favor of what he calls the Financial Settlements Tax. As the name suggests, government revenues are no longer derived from income and instead drawn from securities exchanges. This in effect better reflects the modern economy than the current tax code.

Of course, like many aspiring politicians, Smith confidently believes his policy ideas would trigger a net positive outcome for the economy. According to Smith, the aforementioned focus on financial settlements instead of income would balance the budget. He also affirms a radical path to eliminate the national debt by dumping Treasury bonds in favor of “Coupon Stripping”: exchanging non-interest paying bearing money for the interest-bearing T-bonds.

The majority of readers are undoubtedly skeptical of political promises in today’s world, but one thing is for certain: the current economy is outdated. Scott Smith is absolutely correct when he says we need an upgraded economic operating system. What that means going forward is ultimately up to the will of the American people.